BJJ might make you a better ground fighter, but Judo will make you a better dancer.

Join Date

Dec 2005

Location

W. Yorks, UK

Posts

4,999

Style

Judo

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If it's a grading contest chances are it's going to be a long fucking day, don't expect to be in and out quickly.

Take something to snack on (snickers bar or something) and a drink. Don't drink too much though or you'll end up pissing yourself all the time.

Also take a sweat top or hoodie to put on between your matches so you don't cool down too much. It might be a while between your warm up and your first match, and also between each of your matches (depending on how many people turn up and how many fights you get). Stiffening up because you cooled down sucks.

Apart from that, you already got the best advice you're going to get here, relax and have fun.

i just had my first two competitions the last 2 weekends and for a beginner my advice is, write down a few throws your'e comfortable throwing in randori, and then write down a few setups and combinations to do based around those throws.

practice those combos in randori the week before and get comfortable with them. know what grips you what for what throws, and what throws you can do off of what grips. if you dont have a comfortable grip, break grips, back away, and grip at it again.

if the clock is winding down close to 0 (say 30 seconds or less) and you're losing by points, do whatever you can to stop any ne waza and go for a double leg/morote gari.

if you're in the process of getting pinned, start your escape then and don't stop until you get out. it's not a one shot deal, you need to bridge, roll, shrimp etc etc continuously. also, always watch your neck.

My first tournament:
First fight was against Joe, a friend from my own class who was postponing his brown belt promotion to fight at green. On top of that, I was around 150lbs, compared to his 175. Armed with the foreknowledge that he was basically guarenteed to win the fight, I went out and gripped up. He tried for the quick finish with an immediate full force o soto gari, and then I had him in side control. Watching the recording, I saw myself respond to his osoto by tensing up, growling angrilly, bear hugging him and placing him on the ground. He wasn't flat on his back, so it only got me half a point and he quickly tapped me from the ground, but the experience made me realize how quickly one's gameplan flies out the window in a stress situation.

IMO, this makes drilling combos when you're new fairly useless. I'd suggest a hip throw counter instead. New players aren't used to counters, so they tend to either put all of their weight into their attacks or none at all if they're just trying to attack regularly to avoid shidos. Either way, they're giving you chances to win with each attempt, why not be ready to take them?